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How is molecular cloning performed in modern molecular biology?

The fundamentals of cutting, pasting, and amplifying DNA remain, but the tools have evolved dramatically from older manuals. As a researcher returning to the bench, I want to understand the modern, efficient pipeline—is it all Gibson Assembly and Golden Gate now, or do restriction enzymes still have a place?

 

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By Govind Answered 5 years ago

In modern labs, the workflow is dominated by sequence-independent, in vitro assembly methods like Gibson Assembly or Golden Gate. I’ve largely moved away from traditional restriction/ligation for standard constructs. The process now is: design fragments with 20-40bp overlaps in silico, order them as gBlocks or amplify via PCR, and perform a one-pot, isothermal assembly reaction. Transformation and colony PCR verification remain constants. The revolution is in the design freedom and speed; what took weeks now often takes days. Restriction enzymes are now mostly for diagnostics, not construction.

 

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